Rafael Says U.N. Representative to Mideast Cannot Be Used As ‘escape’ Hatch

October 31, 1967

NEW YORK (Oct. 30)

Ambassador Gideon Rafael of Israel was on record today with a warning to the Arab states against using the proposed United Nations mission to the Middle East “as a means to escape from negotiating with Israel. He said the Israel Government saw no value in any United Nations mission set up on the assumption that its job was “to restore pre-war conditions with their fragility and hostility.”

The Israeli ambassador to the United Nations spoke at a dinner last night at which he received the American Jewish Congress 1967 Stephen S. Wise Award “for distinguished statesmanship in the cause of Israel. The presentation was made by Dr. Joachim Prinz, past president of the Congress. Leonard Bernstein, of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, received a Stephen S. Wise Award “for enhancing human experience through artistic achievement” and Harry Waxman, New York industrialist, received the award for “dynamic leadership and strengthening Jewish life.”

Ambassador Rafael called for a “new chapter in Israel-Arab relations,” but warned that “until we can move forward to peace, we must stand firm where we are, for we will not retreat again into the wilderness of unmitigated hostility.”